How Did I Get Here?

Big River, or how to get to FOSS4G/SOTM LATAM in Belem the slow way. There’s a backstory here, the short version is that 36 years ago - on an extended journey from Costa Rica down to Rio de Janeiro - I tried and failed to get a boat trip down the Amazon from Manaus to Belem and the fine hammock I had bought on the way in Venezuela never got used. In the end I saw very little of the river. Time passed and the regrets faded until they announced that FOSS4G 2024 would be held in Belem.

The announcement got me thinking, obviously this was a chance to try again with at least part of the Amazon. And then, because I’m fairly light on work commitments at the moment, I started thinking that the journey could begin further up river than Manaus. Maybe even in Peru?

So back in April or May I sounded out Johnattan Rupire from the Peruvian OSM community to check whether it was a crazy idea to go to Belem from Iquitos by boat. It is a bit crazy, but it turned out that he was thinking of doing exactly the same trip. And with that, plus quite a bit of internet research on just how many boats we would need to get to make it happen, I got on a plane to Lima in early November.

Thankful to be facilitating the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) - Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) Sub-committee for OSMF Affiliation Models (wow that’s a long name! 😅 )

✍ Documentation including volunteers list and meeting notes are in the OSM Wiki.

🥡 highlights:

1. 🤝 Last Saturday, we had our first volunteers meetup! About 14 people joined the call and we focused our session in getting to know each, and providing clear guidance and space for questions regarding the sub-committee’s goals, volunteer roles, and what to expect

2. ✈ Today, co-leads meet to get to know each other and to set expectations

• Co-leads expressed their enthusiasm to lead teams and identified support needed (e.g. clarity on role, resources, tasks to undertake, time commitment etc)
• Co-leads are: Pilot (be the leaders), Support (their co-leads and team members), and Engage (facilitate within their team)

🎯 Next steps

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Recently, there’s been quite a lot of discussion about the problems with using the tag “highway=path” in the forum. See for example threads here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here - and that’s only the last month or so!

It’s not descriptive

On it’s own, “highway=path” doesn’t really say anything other than it’s somehow possible to get from one end to the other. Have a look at the pictures in the wiki - all of those are regularly tagged as “highway=path” in some regions.

There are some really bizarre examples out there. Up the Hillary Step to get to the top of Everest? https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=path. A scuba diving route? https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=path.

While it is possible to add extra tags to say a bit more about the feature being mapped, often this simply isn’t done.

A data consumer (map maker, routing app creator or even just a human deciding whether to go for a walk somewhere) can’t tell what they’re going to find.

It’s impossible to tag the legal situation properly

The idea is that you can tag a path for pedestrians as “highway=path; foot=designated” and one for cyclists as “highway=path; bicycle=designated”.

The problem here is that “foot” and “bicycle” are “access” tags, and these aren’t always “yes” or “no”. Valid values might be “customers”, “destination”, “permissive” amongst others. If the “foot=designated” on a “highway=path” implies “foot=yes”, what should the tagging be if only customers are allowed?

In countries with some form of allemansrätten (much of Scandinavia, some other places in Europe, including Scotland) this is less of an issue. If you know you can go pretty much anywhere you don’t need to explicitly tag “foot=yes” on everything, and tagging “highway=path; foot=designated” isn’t a problem.

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I was thinking of sharing my experience and reflection for my second year as an OSMF board member, like I did in my first year, then thought, it would be better and greater to write it with my co-board members.

Together with my 2024 fellow board members, Craig, Dani, Mateusz, Roland and Sarah, we are grateful to share our Collective Board Report for the 2024 Year of the OSMF.

In this collective report, we share and document what happened in 2024, celebrate achievements, be transparent about our challenges, and recommend improvements to progress OSMF mission.

I’d like to also mention the collaborative process and inclusion of diverse perspective that we put in our work together as a Board and documented in this written report.

I love this excerpt from the Collective Power Playbook:

“By working together, we can achieve more and benefit more than alone. Collective power means shared ownership of outcomes, lessening the likelihood of failure and benefit for many rather than the few.”

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Personal reflection

When I decided to run for OSMF Board in 2022, my main agenda were to improve representation and ensure that community agenda is at the table. Looking back, I put four focus areas in my manifesto, and shared updates for and shifting prioritization after my first year as board member.

This year, as part of the Board, I focused on the OSMF Membership Campaign, being the Board liaison to the Membership WG, and revising State of the Map (SotM) pages.

Along the road, I went through a major life change and so I needed to deprioritize and shift focus again. I decided not to re-run in the Board, and continue to contribute to the SotM and LCCWG.

My hope for the OSMF is continue to push for gender and geographic representation and inclusive participation in leadership spaces as well as increase transparency and commitment to open collaboration among its board, members and the community.

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Read: The 2024 Year of OSMF: A Collective Board Report

Kävin tässä loppukesästä ja alkusyksystä läpi merkittävän määrän Espoon ja Helsingin päiväkodeista, kouluista ja muita koulutusta tarjoavia paikkoja, jotka löytyi OpenStreetMapin datan perusteella. Tähän myös kuului pieni osa etelä-Vantaata, kuvan 1 rajaaman alueen sisältä.

Inspiraatio tähän tuli seuraavasta Facebook-ketjusta, jossa tuskailtiin Espoon päiväkotien tilannetta pyörällä liikkuvien pysäköintimahdollisuuksien suhteen. Erityisesti, kun pääkaupunkiseudun kaupungeilla on suuria juhlapuheita kestävän liikkumisen suhteen, mutta todellisuus rahankäytön ja asenteen osalta käytännössä jättää kestävän liikkumisen juhlapuheisiin.

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Nicht mehr aktuell!

Kann man den neuen dunklen Modus irgendwie abschalten?

• URL: https://osmapp.org
• Full changelog: https://github.com/zbycz/osmapp/releases/tag/v1.6.0

For those who doesn’t know, OsmAPP is trying to be the one integrated app for everyday use which runs both on web and mobile. It should be as easy to use as Google Maps, but fully open-source with privacy in mind. We still have a way to go, but we are going stellar. 🌠🔥🍾

First we have great news to share – we are thrilled to welcome @Dlurak to the core team! 🎉 His persistence, focus on code quality and dedication to bringing open maps to public earned him a place in project maintainers. In this release he proved himself as a top contributor and also took care of other people’s PR. Thank you @Dlurak! ♥️

Release 1.6.0 sums up almost 3 months of great changes by @kudlav, @amenk, @j9d3it and also from the core team @dlurak, @jvaclavik and @zbycz.

Directions. Finally! 🚶 🚴 🚗 🚀

This was the plan from the beginning of the project. Issue #31 from summer 2021 speaks for itself. The problem was, it seemed too easy. It is not challenging enough to use some API and write a line on the map 😅.

In the end, the challenge was designing the directions form. First trials with expanded Search input were catastrophical and salvation came from AI. The v0 tool by Vercel lets you chat with GPT and get the code in any framework. You can check our results here: https://v0.dev/chat/3MwraSQEqCc

Second challenge were the form interaction and persistence. React is one-way sync by design, and synchronizing the Autocomplete inputs to URL was tricky.

But it went well in the end, and thanks to our valued core team, we got also driving instructions and beatiful start-end markers. And yes, we hear you - there are also open PRs for multiple stops and turn-by-turn navigation. Stay tuned! 🤞 🔮

Big shout out also for @karussell from GraphHopper to proactively offer us bigger limits for API usage. ❤️

SearchBox is becoming omni-box 🔎

Did you know, you can use Overpass API in OsmAPP?

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Mit der App StreetComplete auf dem Smartphone kann jeder Mensch (unabhängig von persönlichen Vorlieben oder Registrierungen in Gruppen und Vereinen) zur Barrierefreiehit beitragen. StreetComplete zeigt ungeklärte Informationen auf einer OpenStreetMap-Karte. Die unbedarfte Nutzerin findet also Orte in ihrer aktuellen Umgebung und kann Fragen beantworten wie: * Gibt es das noch? * Stimmen die Öffnungszeiten? * Wie ist der Belag? … Es gibt Möglichkeiten, etwas einzutragen, ein Foto zu machen und hochzuladen, aus einer Liste auszuwählen.

Meine Erfahrung mit StreetComplete ist: Es ist leicht zu handhaben. Das kann im Grunde jeder Mensch.

Die App ist trackerfrei. Es ist also kein Problem, sich ein OSM-Konto zu erstellen auf @new . Mit dem Nutzernamen und dem Passwort melde ich mich bei StreetComplete an. Schon kann es losgehen.

Es gibt ein Belohnsystem: Oben am Rand ist ein Briefsymbol. Manchmal erhält man eine Mail mit Links zu interessanten Karten.

Manchmal meldet sich ein geübter Mensch, um auf eine Dummheit aufmerksam zu machen. Zum Beispiel wenn ich einen Ort falsch beschrieben habe. Das ist halt das Gute an OpenStreetMap, das es eine Menge Menschen gibt, die völlig unabhängig voneinander die Karte und ihre Funktionen im Auge haben.

Mein Fazit

Nutzt StreetComplete.

Mitarbeit bei OSM. Ein Artikel auf gnulinux.

As you might know, I’m the main developer of MapComplete. For those who don’t know, MapComplete is an OSM-viewer and editor, where contributors can easily answer questions, add new points and upload pictures from a POI from a cozy website. Instead of showing all data at once, it only shows one items within a single topic, resulting in many thematic maps to choose from.

Four years ago, I started with uploading images to IMGUR, a “free” (paid for by advertisements) image host. They were really permissive at the time, and I got the API up and running in about 15 minutes. For the past four years, they served us well with barely any trouble. They rarely had outages and if there was one, it only lasted a few hours at most.

But it was not meant to last. The first crack in this relationship was a little over a year ago. Igmur changed their terms of use, making clear that they would remove “images that aren’t watched often”. In practice, this was mostly meant to remove NSFW pictures from there platform, but it was a good excuse for us to start backing up all the imgur images linked to from OpenStreetMap.

The next omen was the change of terms. From being very permissive, those went to “please, don’t use IMGUR as your Content Distribution Network”, which pretty much is how MapComplete used IMGUR. Oops. In this forum thread, I wrote “I hope IMGUR wouldn’t notice us before MapComplete made the switch to Panoramax”.

Famous last words.

About a week later, our upload got blocked. Contributors were not able to upload new pictures anymore

As such, Thibault Mol setup a Panoramax instance to be used with MapComplete (thank you very much for this!). I spent quite some time to change MapComplete to support panoramax as backend, making uploads possible again!

This has been notable in the graph by TagHistory for Panoramax: one can notice the graph going steeper during october:

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Nicht mehr aktuell!

Personal note and acknowledgement

The Open Mapping Women Awards 2024 was inspired by the 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 where we recognized community champions across Asia. Of’course, this would not also be possible without the brains and heart of the wonder HOT Community Working Group members, and the amazing women in our open mapping community.

I would also want to thank my DEI Champion, friend and beb, Mikko Tamura, for instilling in me that why don’t we recognize every nominations? There may be some unsung heroines or leaders we don’t know globally or have just one nomination, but their impact goes beyond that.

I hope we can continue celebrating and recognizing women in our community!

(Note: Took me 8 months to write something about this. But hey, do you know that International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrate every March 8? And yes, just want to make that connection with 8 month delayed posting lol. Sorry for the very delayed update! 🥹)

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Key highlights: We gathered and amplified 🎥 10 community events through the IWD 2024 OSM wikipage, 🏆 recognized 70 women and 33 communities and projects through the HOT Community WG’s Open Mapping Women Awards 2024, and 5️⃣ women champions shared inspirational messages about their journey, reflections, challenges and hope for the open mapping community: Carrol Chan, Bafamodei Hopeful, Chisom Okwuchi, Rabina Poudyal & Sandra Lucía Hernández Zetina 🙌

Under my [former] role as Online Community Engagement Lead at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and as part of the HOT Community Working Group, this year, we organized two initiatives:

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Après avoir acquérir des compétences en Cartographie numérique notamment avec OSM family, OpenStreetMap et Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team où j’ai participé à plusieurs projets, la volonté de vulgariser ces compétences m’amène à mettre sur pieds HOPE HOT dérivé de l’anglais HOPE ( Espoir ) et HOT ( Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team) pour servir ma communauté. Lien pour accéder à la page officielle :https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555691096172 HOPE HOT grandit peu à peu. Rejoignez-nous pour relever les défis.

It’s time for yet another OpenStreetMap-NG development update! This week we’re excited to present completely redesigned authorization interfaces and new account connectivity features.

🔖 You can read other development diaries here:
@NorthCrab/diary/

⭐ This project is open-source — join us today:
https://github.com/openstreetmap-ng/openstreetmap-ng

🛈 This initiative is not affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

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📹 Video Summary

In this week’s video, I demonstrate the redesigned sign-in experience, showcase our reinvented sign-up page, and explore the connected accounts feature. As always, the recording includes chapter markers for easy navigation.

⬇ Click below to play ⬇

or click here: https://peertube.monicz.dev/w/fcKQXyH87zeKPWvscBeBq7

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New Sign-in Experience

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.

As we approach the final stages of organizing SotM Kerala, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our Sponsors, Hosting Institution, Partnering Organizations, Community Partners, Individual Supporters, and the incredible Volunteers who have made this initiative possible.

💌 Scholarship emails have been sent – if you’ve applied, please check your inbox or reach out to us at [email protected] for any inquiries.

📅 The program schedule is in its final review and will be shared soon!

🎟 Limited tickets are still available – grab yours now at https://makemypass.com/state-of-the-map-kerala.

🤝 Want to support the event? Consider purchasing a Supporter Pass to become an individual sponsor.

Looking forward to an inspiring gathering!

Finished result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUkLQj29vE4

Preamble

I have been interested in making “before and after” comparisons of mapping progress for a while. The rich and beautiful OSM-carto style as it appears in standard OSM is a particularly important element of what I wanted to achieve, but it remains quite difficult to render historical map data in this style.

This guide mostly follows the ohsome guide from 2018 but taken further and with updates. Please be aware that I have done little to optimise the workflow so far; this is more of a proof-of-concept at the moment.

I started out mapping in August 2020 and mapped almost exclusively in my old hometown whilst I was stuck there during COVID. I spent a lot of time mapping this area very comprehensively and wanted to visualise my work. Big shoutout to user John Bek who greatly helped with building tracing, which is quite tedious. The Blue Mountains towns of Katoomba, Leura and Wentworth Falls featured are now some of the most comprehensively mapped in Australia.

Previous method

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Coucou 👋😅

J’ai un peu oublié de faire ça ces derniers temps, n’est-ce pas?

Pour faire court, j’ai été occupé par mon déménagement (qui a finalement eu lieu) et j’avoue que la motivation pour faire des vidéos était assez basse. D’ailleurs, je n’ai “que” huit nouvelles vidéos depuis le dernier update en juin.

Ce mappeur OpenStreetMap vous montre comment utiliser Strava avec un pseudo tutoriel GÉNÉRIQUE - Une session live (je n’ai pas envie de chercher le changeset dans mon historique 😅 ) où j’essaie d’expliquer comment utiliser la heatmap Strava de la meilleure manière possible

Améliorons Seraing (sur OpenStreetMap) - Hors-série (Rétrospective 2022-2024) - Pour “fêter” mes deux ans sur OSM, je suis revenu sur ce que j’ai fait pour remettre à jour et améliorer Seraing et ses environs

Ce mappeur OpenStreetMap PART EN PRISON, puis ajoute quelques sentiers à Verviers grâce à Strava - Une autre session live où j’utilise de nouveau Strava pour trouver des sentiers/chemins manquants sur Verviers (et dégager des bâtiments détruits depuis longtemps près de l’ancienne/future prison si vous vous demandez d’où sort ce titre putaclic 😏)

Améliorons Seraing (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 40 (La liaison cyclo-piétonne Neupré-Seraing) - Une session live où j’utilise une trace GPS d’une sortie VTT pour faire des modifications diverses et compléter la future piste cyclo-piétonne Neupré-Seraing

Améliorons Seraing (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 41 (Corrections et trottoirs) - Une dernière session live avec quelques corrections, puis je “présente” mon “projet” (je déteste ce terme, mais je n’ai pas mieux 🤷‍♂️) d’ajouter les trottoirs séparément sur Seraing

De ce côté, j’ai pas trop mal avancé pour le moment, même si je pourrais sans doute aller un rien plus vite 😅

Ce cycliste vous emmène sur les anciens chemins vicinaux de Seraing ANNEXÉS par Neupré - Une sortie VTT où je montre les cinq anciens chemins vicinaux sérésiens qui sont désormais sur le territoire de la commune de Neupré

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Pour cartographier un centre de données # pour débuter

• telecom=data_center il est necessaire de

• telecom data_center mandatory
• operator The operator of the datacenter. In the case of a corporate datacenter, this will be the organisation which owns it. In the case of a colocation facility, this will be the colocation company. recommended
• operator:wikidata Q recommended *name The name of the datacenter. recommended
• ref The operator's reference for the datacenter (usually a three or four character abbreviation). recommended
• owner
• exemples way/159863825

si l’élement existe dans wikidata

• wikidata Q:

Pour trouver les datacenters sur la carte

[https://overpass-turbo.eu/?template=key-value&key=telecom&value=data_center]

Références

Sous le feu numérique-Spatialités et énergies des data centers [https://www.metispresses.ch/fr/sous-le-feu-numerique]